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Something like beautiful

asha bandele

2008200 pagesabout 3–5 hours
2008
first published
  • 2009HarperCollins · ENGISBN 9780061826665
  • 2009HarperCollins Publishers · ENGISBN 9780061977190
  • 2009HarperCollins Publishers · ENGISBN 9780061826641
  • 2009HarperCollins Publishers · ENGISBN 9780061826627
  • 2009HarperCollins Publishers · ENGISBN 9780061826634
  • 2009Collins · 200 pages · ENGISBN 9780061710377
  • 2010Harper Paperbacks · 208 pagesISBN 9780061710391
  • 2008Bloomsbury USA · 224 pages · ENGISBN 9781596911758

From the author of The Prisoner's Wife, a poetic, passionate, and powerful memoir about the hard realities of single motherhoodWhen Asha Bandele, a young poet, fell in love with a prisoner serving a twenty-to-life sentence and became pregnant with his daughter, she had reason to hope they would live together as a family. Rashid was a model prisoner, and expected to be paroled soon. But soon after Nisa was born, Asha's dreams were shattered. Rashid was denied parole, and told he'd be deported to his native Guyana once released. Asha became a statistic: a single, black mother in New York City.On the outside, Asha kept it together. She had a great job at a high-profile magazine and a beautiful daughter whom she adored. But inside, she was falling apart. She began drinking and smoking and eventually stumbled into another relationship, one that opened new wounds. This lyrical, astonishingly honest memoir tells of her descent into depression when her life should have been filled with love and joy. Something Like Beautiful is not only Asha's story, but the story of thousands of women who struggle daily with little help and much against them, and who believe they have no right to acknowledge their pain. Ultimately, drawing inspiration from her daughter, Asha takes account of her life and envisions for herself what she believes is possible for all mothers who thought there was no way out — and then discovered there was.

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